COLOMBIA: Opposition As Usual

Since last August, when he shut down
Colombia's leading newspaper, El Tiempo, Strongman-President Gustavo
Rojas Pinilla has been carrying on a clumsy feud with the country's
traditionally free-swinging press. Last week Rojas discovered that he
had stumbled again. His latest press-muzzling maneuver, an attempt to
fine two of the country's largest Liberal dailies (El Espectador and El
Correo) into oppositionless silence, had backfired. Rojas found himself
faced by a "Freedom of the Press Fund," supported by public
subscription, to pay the penalties, should he decide to levy similar
fines in the...